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“These are premiums paid by depositors as insurance to protect the public in cases of bank runs and liquidity problems,” former congressman Neri Colmenares of party-list Bayan Muna pointed out.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — While returning the P60 billion to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) is commendable, it would still be best if the Marcos administration also returns the P110 billion it got from the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., a former lawmaker said.
“These are premiums paid by depositors as insurance to protect the public in cases of bank runs and liquidity problems,” former congressman Neri Colmenares of party-list Bayan Muna pointed out.
“This money should not be raided to finance unrelated spending,” he said, serving notice and warning that “diverting deposit insurance money weakens protection for ordinary depositors and increases systemic risk.”
“The P110 billion should be restored to PDIC. These are premiums of depositors that serve as insurance in case there are bank runs and liquidity problems. These are not government funds that government can just spend as they please, for purposes of concealing the budget deficit,” he said.
The P60 billion that the finance department got was returned and transferred to the National Treasury. Colmenares said the money must be protected from future diversion and immediately directed to improve benefits and services.
“The return of the P60 billion to PhilHealth is the correct move. These are contributions meant for health services, not a standby pool to plug budget holes elsewhere,” Colmenares said, adding the return will “not be enough if the budget mechanism that enabled the transfer remains intact.”
“We should remove unprogrammed funds provisions that allow a repeat of this diversion. If we are serious about protecting PhilHealth members, there must be no more backdoor authority to pull PhilHealth money away from health care,” he said.
Colmenares also demanded transparency and accountability regarding the broader set of unused PhilHealth funds, noting that the P60 billion forms part of the reported P89.9 billion in unused PhilHealth funds.
“There must be a full public accounting of all funds released from PhilHealth under the Universal Health Care law in 2024 and 2025 – who approved, how much was transferred, where it went, and what it was used for,” he said. “There should be no more unprogrammed funds so that such incidents will not anymore happen in the future.”
In a statement, Colmenares urged PhilHealth and oversight agencies to ensure the returned amount translates into concrete improvements for members, including higher benefit packages, faster claims processing, and stronger anti-fraud and governance systems.
“This money must be felt by members through better benefits and more reliable service – not remain idle or vulnerable to future reallocation,” he said.
